What are some reasons in your opinion to convert religions?

[Tis_Bearself]

I was thinking the exact same thing.
The people who get all drawn to a new religion because they have some kind of emotional feeling or experience of it are also often the ones looking to change religions again a few years later when the bloom is off the rose and things get boring or annoying or difficult at the church they joined. They remind me of the people whose relationships only last X number of years because the romance wears off and when things get difficult, they split.

 

[Salibi]

The people who get all drawn to a new religion because they have some kind of emotional feeling or experience of it are also often the ones looking to change religions again a few years later when the bloom is off the rose and things get boring or annoying or difficult at the church they joined.

Yep.

One can’t exist in a permanent state of “spiritual high”. It’s emotionally and mentally exhausting. There’s a reason why it eventually leaves you feeling burnt out.

Spiritual maturity is realizing that having good faith does not equal feeling spiritually high all the time. It’s disciplining oneself to continue being observant even when one is experiencing a “night of the soul”.

 

[Niblo]

Hello Salibi.

Have not seen you for a while. Looks like you’re ok. Great news.

May the Exalted keep you safe.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

I’m Ukrainian Greek Catholic and quite frankly, the denial of the Immaculate Conception by the Orthodox really irks me.

St. Irenaeus, one of the early Catholic apologists, wrote: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.” Christ is the New Adam, Mary is the New Eve.

God created the first Eve immaculate (c.f. Gen. 2). After Adam and Eve sinned (c.f. Gen. 3), God says to the evil one, who took the form of a serpent:

[15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

[15] “She shall crush”: Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz., the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head.

If two parties are at enmity, they have nothing in common. Mary, the New Eve, had (and has) nothing in common with the devil since God preserved her from original sin at the moment of Her conception.

In 1854, Bl. Pius IX infallibly defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception:

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pi09id.htm

In 1858, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to St. Bernadette and said: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

My story: 15+ years ago, I was invited to an Orthodox Baptism/Chrismation/First Eucharist by an Orthodox family I knew from work. They were customers at our store, and I frequently helped them so I went.

This is going to sound crazy but it’s the only way I can explain it: When I was in the narthex of the church (that’s where the rite of baptism begins in Byzantine practice), I felt a spiritual coldness which I could not describe. I was surrounded by people and physically warm (there was no air conditioning because it was in March). I did not participate in the liturgy. After the service, I talked to one of the deacons and asked him: Since your liturgy is the same as ours, and you profess that Mary is immaculate, why don’t you believe in the Immaculate Conception? He couldn’t give me an answer.

Sorry for the length of this post.

 

[Salibi]

Hello!

I’ve had quite a busy month. I was ill for a week (not coronavirus) then underwent an operation that left me ill for another week, then I had to tackle the piles of work for university. Still tackling. Glad to see you’re okay too! Hope you are your family are and will remain safe.

Take care, dear friend.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

a world parliament and a international court of arbitration to resolve differences

The United Nations was founded 75 years ago. The International Criminal Court has been around for years as well. Yet there have been many wars from 1945 to the present.

Neither the UN nor the ICC can help people stop breaking the Fifth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.”

 

[Niblo]

Hello!

I’ve had quite a busy month. I was ill for a week (not coronavirus) then underwent an operation that left me ill for another week, then I had to tackle the piles of work for university. Still tackling. Glad to see you’re okay too! Hope you are your family are and will remain safe.Take care, dear friend.

Oh dear…but better now by the look of it. We are fine, thanks. My wife and I are working from home, and the cat thinks all her birthdays have come at once, now that the old geezer (that’s me) is freely available for beck-and-call snuggles! What’s that saying: Cats don’t have owners, they have staff.

Take care, dear friend. May God bless you for your kindness.